mental illness

Articles (1 - 20 of 69)

Some fathers with mental illness feel discriminated against for their – perceived or actual – inability to meet the traditional paternal responsibilities of provider, protector and role-model.
momento mori/FlickrFebruary 12 2015

Where there is mental illness, there’s almost invariably social disapproval and discrimination. And a report released by the Australian Institute of Family Studies today shows fathers with mental illness…

Compared to other antisocial people, psychopaths lack empathy and are less able to understand punishment.
Viktor Gladkov/ShutterstockJanuary 29 2015

The psychologist David Lykken once wrote that most violent crime could be prevented by cryogenically freezing all males aged 12 to 28. Although this option might be appealing at times for high school teachers…

Neuroscience holds the key to understanding the brain – and to developing more effective treatments for people with mental health disorders. But if we are to translate the many neuroscience discoveries…

People with social anxiety disorder believe they will be rejected when others see how anxious and awkward they are.
rashmi ravindran/FlickrJanuary 27 2015

Most of us would admit to feeling shy from time to time, or anxious about public speaking: the larger the crowd the greater the terror. It’s also not unusual to feel awkward while making small talk with…

It was 1930. Winston Churchill was a 55-year-old Conservative Party politician who had been a member of parliament for three decades. He had eventually risen to the position of chancellor of the exchequer…

Organisations such as MIND work tirelessly to raise awareness of mental health problems and real progress has been made in destigmatising mental illness through campaigns such as Time to Change and Black…

It’s normal to feel distressed after a such an attack, but this generally reduces in the following days and weeks.
AAP Image/Dean LewinsDecember 17 2014

People in Sydney and the broader community are feeling shocked, anxious, and sad about the actions of a lone, unstable person that led to the tragic loss of lives in the siege early this week. But there’s…

The growing chronic disease burden will require not only greater focus on prevention, but also innovative treatment.
AAP/Joe CastroDecember 11 2014

Australia’s health care arrangements do not work well for those with complex and chronic conditions such as diabetes, cancer and mental illness, according to a federal government paper. These people need…

Disclosing mental illness in the office can be difficult. But it doesn’t need to be.
Image of office worker via KieferPix/ShutterstockDecember 5 2014

Deciding to disclose information about a non-obvious disability at work is complicated and potentially risky, no matter what you do for a living. For people with a mental health issue, like bipolar disorder…

For people with severe depression, incorrect application can worsen their condition or cause memory loss.
Nathan O'Nions/FlickrDecember 3 2014

Health and social workers often choose their profession because they want to help people. But seeing trauma and suffering on a regular basis can have a deep impact on these workers. “Compassion fatigue…

In an attempt to move away from the traditional language used to describe psychosis and schizophrenia, the British Psychological Society (BPS) has launched an update to its thinking on this issue. The…

Mental illness is a major public health problem in the United States. Suicide alone takes the lives of 38,000 Americans each year, more than double that from homicide. Medical and surgical patients who…

During World War I, severe post-traumatic reactions reached an epidemic scale that surpassed anything known from previous armed conflicts. The centenary of the Great War has reminded us of the tremendous…

Too stringent an approach to assisted dying risks locking people with mental illness out of the right to make decisions about the end of their lives.
Thomas Hawk/FlickrNovember 14 2014

Euthanasia advocates often assert a distinction between dying with dignity (good) and suicide (bad), drawing on the community’s twin commitment to both permitting euthanasia in some circumstances, and…

On a recent Halloween special of the X Factor, contestant Lola Saunders sang Crazy by Gnarls Barkley. When the song came under fire from Simon Cowell for not being Halloween enough, Saunders' mentor, Cheryl…

Mental illness and women’s sexuality are frequently aligned – on screen and off. The father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, pathologised women’s sexuality. Indeed his definition of a woman as someone…

Positive portrayals of people with mental illness exist in the media but these are the exception rather than the norm.
Network TenOctober 29 2014

When Homeland first aired in 2011 starring a CIA agent with bipolar disorder, Carrie Mathison (played by Claire Danes), it was commended for its realistic portrayals of people with mental illness. Courtney…

People with complex trauma appear like they are always anticipating or responding to a threat.
file404/ShutterstockOctober 27 2014

Experiencing trauma has significant implications for mental health. We’ve known this for some time but particularly since the early 1970s after observing and studying the effects of war on American servicemen…

The announcement by Dinesh Bhugra, president of the World Psychiatric Association, that an independent commission will investigate what psychiatrists of the future will look like signals what all mental…